TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Despite a gem of a performance in the circle from Sarah Hamilton, the 16th-seeded Florida State softball team fell to Oklahoma State 1-0 Friday night in NCAA Regional action at JoAnne Graf Field.

“I thought it was a good atmosphere, but I don’t think we could really get anything going today,” Florida State head coach Lonni Alameda said. “It was a bit frustrating in that sense. We need to keep our chins up and go after it now. Our backs are against the wall so we have to go make it happen. We are excited for that. I think we hit the ball pretty hard. That has kind of been the M.O. for us in the past couple of games.”

Hamilton and OSU pitcher Anna Whiddon went toe-to-toe, but the Cowgirls used small-ball in the seventh inning to finally break open a pitchers’ duel.

Hamilton started things off by striking out the side in the top of the first but the Cowgirls’ pitching was just as tough, allowing one Nole to reach base on a walk with two strike outs and a pop up to third.

Hamilton was able to get Florida State out of several jams as the Cowgirls put a runner on third in three innings, but were unable to score thanks to a strong Seminole defense.

After threatening several times, OSU finally broke through in the seventh inning. Megan Castle led off with a single and moved up on a sacrifice bunt in which she beat the throw to second base. Both she and Julie Ward moved up a bag on Taylor Marcum’s sacrifice bunt and Castle scored on Chelsea Garcia’s successful suicide squeeze.

Whiddon tossed a one-hitter in moving to 20-13 on the year. The lone Florida State hit came from Shayla Jackson – a single in the fourth inning. Hamilton pitched just as well, but ended up on the short end in dropping to 19-6. Hamilton allowed one run on four hits with a walk and eight strikeouts.

Earlier in the day, second-seeded California topped third-seeded Mississippi State, 8-3. Florida State (43-15) will face MSU in an elimination game on Saturday at approximately 3:30 p.m. Cal and OSU (35-20) will open Saturday’s action with a 1 o’clock game. The winner of that game will move to Sunday’s championship action while the loser will face the winner of FSU/MSU at 7 p.m., in another elimination game.